Delusion

Title: DECEPTION
Author: Patricia Hochstetler
Publisher: Baker Trittin Press
2007
ISBN: 978-0-9787316-5-6
Genre: Inspirational/cults/memoir

DECEPTION is the second book in Ms. Hochstetler’s trilogy about growing up in an Amish-Jewish Cult. The story begins with Delusion, where Patricia Hochstetler’s parents and grandparents decided to follow a charismatic leader into the wilderness of Tennessee, and obeyed all his orders without question.

In DECEPTION, the group has decided to leave Tennessee and go to Mississippi where they worked on a cotton plantation in the delta. In this book, Patricia grows from age six, when her name was changed by the Elder to Lois, until she was sixteen, when the Elder excommunicated her mother, her father had a nervous breakdown, and the Elder changes her name back to Patricia.

The story really isn’t written as it happens, as events that happen later in the story are referred to earlier, and it tends to jump around in time-line somewhat, but nevertheless, the story is engaging, and teaches us a lot about how the Elder schmoozed his way into an Amish community, and lured over 75% of them away from their faith to follow him, and his rules which seemed to change at whim.

DECEPTION is followed by book three Deliverance which is waiting in my to-be-read pile. I recommend reading these books in order to be able to get the full benefit from them. As most people know someone who had been in a cult, these books are excellent resources for everyone. $12.95. 182 pages.